How to leverage back-to-school sales opportunities

A good field marketing agency doesn’t stop seeking out the sales opportunities and will use their retail expertise to enhance a brand’s overall sales and marketing strategy

For brands who sell products targeting students, the last few weeks of the summer holidays - otherwise known as the 'back to school' period – can be a lucrative time to capitalise on additional sales opportunities. With parents actively seeking out essentials from pens, pencil cases and notebooks to lunchboxes and uniforms, smart merchandising can help brands ensure that their product is expertly stocked and displayed to optimise sales during this peak selling period.

Get stock in order

It's not just about making sure the product stands out on shelf, although of course this is crucial, but also ensuring that opportunities are not lost because stock has been pushed to the back of the display during the New Year rush period, or that a range has been sold out before the stores have had time to replenish the shelves with new stock.

The Christmas and New Year retail rush can be an exhausting time for retailers who may start to let their guard down as the sales period ends, however catching opportunities from the thousands of parents and teachers looking to stock up on essentials before the new school year starts in February can give sales another nice lift, further increasing a brand’s bottom line. A good field marketing agency doesn’t stop seeking out the sales opportunities and will use their retail expertise to enhance a brand’s overall sales and marketing strategy.

Tailored execution to meet needs down to the store-level

One of the best ways to maximise sales during this peak time is to outsource staff to a field marketing agency who can draw on their scale, speed and expertise, thus ensuring that brands are sending staff to the stores that actually need them, for the appropriate amount of time, rather than a one-size-fits-all strategy where resources could’ve been better spent. By using data to deploy staff in this way, resources are used as efficiently as possible, maximising opportunities and driving sales.

The field marketing industry is quickly gaining pace in Australia, with CROSSMARK experiencing year on year growth as more businesses realise the value of outsourcing field teams.

For companies with in-house field teams, they can alleviate their team’s visits to focus on building relationships with retailers by outsourcing merchandising and stock replenishment to field agencies like us.

Activate your campaign with speed to maximise sales days

Field marketing agencies can also support brands with merchandising requirements by executing national back-to-school campaigns in store quickly and efficiently. In fact, CROSSMARK’s unique ‘speed to market’ service can rollout a promotion nationally to over 2,500 stores in as little as a day! Our field teams can also address new product lines, price reductions and end-of aisle gondolas to ensure products are highly visible. And with only several weeks to capitalise on this increased buying activity, time is certainly of the essence!

With this in mind, if a brand has products that fall into the back-to-school category, they should make sure they are leveraging this once-a-year opportunity. Thinking about outsourcing to ‘flex up’ your field executions during this peak season can certainly be the best way to amplify your brand’s campaigns.

We simply love retail, to see how we can help your business or start a conversation about the retail landscape, please feel free to contact us viaemailor on +61 2 9439 1233.